Criminal Charges:
Man charged in the Bristol County Taunton District Court for:
- Discharging a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Building – M.G.L. c. 269, § 12E
- Possession of a Firearm without a FID Card – M.G.L. c. 269, § 10(h)
Case Overview:
Police responded to a multi-family dwelling for the report of a firearm being discharged within the building. Upon arrival, police spoke to one of the residents, who provided police with a spent bullet discovered in the hallway outside the entrance to her apartment. The woman then brought police inside her home and showed them a bullet hole in the wall and above the doorway. As police were investigating the hole, an unknown object came out of the hole, which appeared to be from someone probing the hole from the other side of the wall. Police evacuated the building, obtained information about the man in the other apartment, and confirmed he did not have a valid Firearms Identification Card (FID) or License to Carry (LTC). Police called the man, asked him to exit his apartment and placed him into custody. Inside the man’s apartment, police located a firearm and loaded magazine concealed inside an ottoman, a shell casing on a table next to the couch, as well as a continuous bullet hole through a television, and into a wall directly behind the television that led into the adjacent apartment. Police seized the firearm and ammunition as evidence and placed the man under arrest for Unlicensed Possession of a Firearm and Discharging of a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Building. The man retained Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer, John L. Calcagni III, to defend him against these charges.
Case Result: Unlicensed Possession of a Firearm. Dismissed; and
Discharging a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Building – CWOF for 18 Months.
Following ongoing negotiations with the Commonwealth, Attorney Calcagni and his team successfully secured the prosecution’s agreement to both dismiss the possession offense (which called for mandatory jail time upon conviction) and agree to a continuation without a finding (CWOF) of the discharging offense for 18 months. Upon conclusion of the CWOF period, the discharging offense will also be dismissed, and the man will immediately be eligible to seal from public record.
